Risen Kingdom

Quick, fun, and moderately challenging: everything you could ask for.

Risen Kingdom is an RTS/TD hybrid game. You build units, defend your base, and strike out across the map to attack neutral creeps and expand your holdings. It very much feels like a Warcraft 3 custom map, and I mean that as a compliment.

The RTS portions of the game are where it really shines. Having to balance pushing out and expanding your base while defending it properly is the only real opportunity for skill expression you're given; the TD portion of the game is very simple.

Risen Kingdom plays well. It has classic Blizzard-type controls, including the exact same hotkeys for control groups. Unit selection is a little worse than in Starcraft or Warcraft, but you don't need micro so it's mostly a moot point.

Difficulty is moderate for any RTS veteran; the whole game took me around 7 hours to complete on the hardest difficulty, including getting all achievements. But for such a low price, value for money was very much there.

All told, Risen Kingdom is fun little TD that you can blow through in a single session. It's cheap, plays wells, and is modestly challenging. What more could you ask for?

The game is fun. Very easy to play.
This game doesnt require any thought of any kind. Super simple and easy to beat.
Con:
One of the levels is simply impossible to beat in hard difficulty.
The ending has no final boss. It's just 10 minutes of waves. At one point i thought the game was glitched lol.
Game is too short for 10$. I finished it in 8 hours. A lot of that was just waiting for the timer to end because i had cleared all the areas.
Game ending has no conclusion. No congrats message, no music, no end game boss. It just ends. Was kind of dissapointed.
The maps are railroady. Straight path to your destination. Same upgrades every map.
Only story mode. No PVE maps or create your own maps etc. This game can definitely improve in the second version if one ever comes out.

Absolutely Great, all round a Fun little game

The game is pretty easy, but it is still super fun. For $3 it is def worth it. It's not a crazy big game, but it is short so it works out fine. The gameplay is fun if you like RTS games. It's a fun twist with zombies as enemies, even if it's not the first to do it is still fun.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Perfect
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Okay
☐ Bad
☐ Very stylized
☐ They're what they should be for what the game is
☐ MS Paint could make something better
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Fantastic
☐ Excellent
☐ Perfect
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Meh
☐ Bad, but playable
☐ Just go watch paint dry
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Amazing
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not to bad
☐ Alright
☐ Bad
☐ My ears are bleeding
---{ Audience }---
☑ Babies
☑ Young kids
☑ Young teens
☑ Older teens
☑ Adults
☑ Old people
☑ Anyone with a decent maturity level
☑ Anyone with a lack of maturity
☑ Anyone that is alive
☑ No one, not even your dog
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Just average
☐ A little better than average
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Better than good
☐ Fancy Pants Rich Boy
☐ NASA
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Can choose your difficulty setting
☐ No difficulty needed
☐ Just press 'W"
☐ Easy
☑ Medium
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Hard
☐ Verry Difficult
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if you like to collect things
☐ Only if you care about steam achievements
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Only if you care about rankings/placements/leaderboards/etc.
☐ Average grind level
☐ A little grindy
☐ Too much grind
☑ You‘ll need a second life, maybe some macros, & a will to live for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ Story? What story?
☐ No Story
☐ Twilight was a better love story than this
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ 1-2 Hours
☐ 2-5 Hours
☑ 5-10 Hours
☐ 10-20 Hours
☐ 20-50 Hours
☐ 50+ Hours
☐ 100+ Hours
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Replayablity }---
☐ You won't even finish it the first time
☐ None, once was enough
☐ Not that kind of game
☐ You don't stop playing this kinda game, ever
☐ Maybe once or twice, to try something new
☑ You'll want to get every single possible ending & secret there is
☐ You'll pick it up every few years, but never finish a whole playthrough
☐ A lot, just to romance everyone, pick new options. try new classes, etc
---{ Price }---
☐ It’s free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If you have some money to blow
☑ Wait for it to go on sale for the 100th time
☐ Ask someone to gift it to you instead
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Circumstantial (PC specs, internet, save/install location, etc.)
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Very low
☑ Low
☐ Average
☐ High
☐ Too much
---{ Worth It }---
☐ Hell no!
☐ If you have a lot of cash
☐ Worth it!
☑ Get it now!
☑ Life is not complete without this game!
---{ TEXT }---
Risen Kingdom is a hybrid game, you build units, defend your base and attack mobs on the map to expand your territory.
The RTS portions of the game are where it really shines.
The gameplay of Risen Kingdom moves very well. It has classic controls, including the exact same hotkeys for the control groups. This game can be described in the following words: simple, satisfying, addictive and interesting!
---{ 8 / 10 }---
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Risen Kingdom, developed by MyDreamForever and Tazdraperm, is a compact but engaging real-time strategy title that finds its identity in rebuilding a fallen realm while fending off relentless waves of the undead. With a blend of base-building, survival mechanics, and tactical combat, the game carves a niche for itself among indie strategy games, offering a familiar yet satisfying gameplay loop. Though it doesn’t push the boundaries of the genre, it delivers a solid experience for fans looking for strategic depth in a manageable format.
Set in a grim fantasy world ravaged by dark forces, Risen Kingdom tasks the player with restoring a ruined kingdom from the ground up. This begins with establishing a self-sustaining settlement—building houses to grow your population, setting up food production chains, gathering wood and stone, and eventually developing infrastructure to support military units and defensive structures. The early game is focused on careful planning, where every building placement and upgrade choice has an impact. Unlike some larger-scale RTS titles, this game keeps the focus relatively small, emphasizing efficiency and forward-thinking over sprawling empires. This tighter scope helps make the game accessible, especially for players new to the genre or those seeking a more relaxed pace.
The heart of Risen Kingdom lies in its day-and-night cycle, with the nights bringing increasingly dangerous waves of undead enemies. These nightly attacks serve as the primary pressure on the player, forcing you to allocate resources wisely between economic expansion and defensive fortification. Combat plays out in real-time, with a variety of units and fortifications at your disposal. Archers, pikemen, cannons, and barricades must all be used in synergy to withstand the growing threats. Planning the layout of your base becomes a strategic puzzle—placing towers where they’ll get the best coverage, ensuring that bottlenecks slow enemies down, and making sure your villagers can still move efficiently to gather resources.
The game’s visual style is modest but clear, featuring a top-down isometric perspective with stylized, readable graphics. While it won’t win any awards for visual fidelity, it does a good job of presenting the necessary information cleanly, which is critical in a strategy game where clarity matters more than flair. The art direction leans into a slightly cartoonish fantasy style that feels light enough to keep things from becoming too grim, despite the undead theme. Enemy designs are distinct enough to be identifiable at a glance, and the animations, while simple, are functional.
From a technical perspective, Risen Kingdom performs well even on lower-end hardware. Its lightweight requirements and small file size make it an ideal game for laptops and older PCs, and it runs smoothly with little in the way of performance hiccups. It's even compatible with the Steam Deck, although some UI scaling issues may arise. This technical accessibility is a key strength, opening the game up to a broader range of players who may not have the latest hardware but still want a solid strategy experience.
However, the game isn’t without its drawbacks. While the gameplay loop is initially satisfying, it can become repetitive over time. Once you’ve mastered the basic strategies and unlocked the main buildings and units, the challenge plateaus rather than evolving. Enemy types begin to feel familiar, and the lack of major mechanical shifts or new systems later in the game can result in a sense of monotony. The research and tech tree progression is serviceable but lacks the depth and branching choices seen in more complex RTS titles. Similarly, the AI is functional but not particularly adaptive, often relying on sheer numbers rather than tactical behavior.
Despite these shortcomings, Risen Kingdom succeeds in delivering a well-rounded and enjoyable RTS experience for those who appreciate survival elements and methodical base management. Its compact design makes it ideal for short sessions, and the increasing difficulty of enemy waves ensures that complacency is punished. It offers just enough progression, with unlockable upgrades and new maps, to encourage players to push further. The campaign structure, while linear, gives a good sense of accomplishment as you reclaim territory and build toward a brighter future.
Ultimately, Risen Kingdom is a game that understands its limitations and plays to its strengths. It doesn’t aim to compete with genre giants in terms of scale or complexity, but instead focuses on delivering a tight, balanced strategy experience with satisfying gameplay loops and a consistent challenge. For players looking for a straightforward but rewarding RTS with survival mechanics, it’s a hidden gem that proves indie developers can still make compelling entries in a classic genre. It may not be revolutionary, but it’s a reminder that good design and thoughtful execution are more important than flashy features.
Rating: 7/10

It's a good enough little game, think of a blend between an RTS and a tower defence. The goal is to survive x/x waves of undead. There are 8 levels following a pretty basic story giving context to the game, there is also a survival mode. However, the survival mode seemingly only has the 1 map at the moment, so replayability is limited. Expect a difficulty spike in the later levels on hard mode. Lack of an option to 'save' during a game is frustrating, so make sure you have enough time to finish a level before you start.

TL;DR, It's serviceable and entertained me, get it on sale for a few bucks, play a match and if it's not for you, return it.